


Five Tracks on Rodney McKay's iPod (that mean more to him than you might guess)

by Telesilla



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: DVD Commentary, M/M, five things fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-22
Updated: 2009-12-22
Packaged: 2017-10-05 00:45:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telesilla/pseuds/Telesilla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A glimpse at Rodney through his iPod.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five Tracks on Rodney McKay's iPod (that mean more to him than you might guess)

**1\. "For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her" -- Simon and Garfunkel**

 

Karen, Rodney's favorite babysitter, had listened to Simon and Garfunkel. She'd bring her albums with her when she came over to watch him and Jeannie. One time when his parents were gone for the whole day, Karen put Jeannie down for a nap, put an album on the stereo and said, "Let's make cookies."

 

"Mom says cookies aren't healthy," Rodney said.

 

"That just makes them taste better," Karen said firmly, taking things out of a shopping bag, white flour and processed sugar and real butter, things Rodney only saw in other people's kitchens.

 

She let Rodney help, explaining why she opened each egg into a measuring cup before putting them in with the rest of the ingredients. "Trust me," she said when he asked how you could tell if the egg was bad. "If you get one, you'll know; they're really gross."

 

They ate raw dough even though Rodney was sure he'd get sick from it. "No lemon anywhere near it," Karen said with a big smile. "You'll be fine." She had flour on her nose and on her bell bottomed jeans, and the pink nail polish on her toes was chipped, and her hair was long and blonde and glossy, and right then, at that moment, Rodney fell helplessly in love.

 

That probably explains why, if Rodney's really tired or strung out, hearing "For Emily...." will make his eyes water. Although maybe it's just the beauty of the song itself, because "The Boxer" was the song that was playing when he asked Karen to marry him.

 

**2\. "Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (Ode to Joy)" -- Wilhelm Furtwangler (conductor)**

 

Yes, it's the 1951 Bayreuth Festival version with the mistakes and all, and anyway, when it comes to classical music, Rodney's tastes are generally a bit more modern, but he ended up loading this version on his iPod just before he left Earth for some reason he can't really remember.

 

It was only after they'd dealt with the flying darkness that ate energy--and hadn't that been a TOS episode? Or was it a TNG one?--that  
Rodney had had enough time to actually listen to music. Late one night, his first off world mission quickly approaching, he'd picked the  
classic genre and hit shuffle. Not that Rodney was superstitious or anything, but as the opening bars of the Ninth began, he couldn't help taking it as an omen.

 

Now, three years later, Rodney can't separate Atlantis from this particular version of the Ninth in his head, and those off notes? Yeah, that's what makes it their Atlantis, that little bit of human fallibility.

 

**3\. "Comfortably Numb" -- Dar Williams &amp; Ani DiFranco**

 

If anyone were to catch Rodney listening to this, he'd just grimace and say he was getting in touch with his inner lesbian, and of course he'd listened to _The Wall_ a lot while he was in college, and if they didn't have better things to do than talk to him about his choice in music, by God, he'd find something to keep them busy.

 

The fact is, Rodney had taped the original version of "Comfortably Numb" on a continuous loop for one whole side of a 90 minute cassette tape and sometimes he'd listen to it at night in his room, wondering if maybe fourteen was just a little too young to be at college.

 

Years later, he heard the Dar Williams version in a coffee house and had gone to three different record stores in the same afternoon to track down a copy of _My Better Self._ He sat and listened to it on repeat several times and finally appreciated the song for itself.

 

Rodney didn't bring _The Wall_ to Atlantis.

 

**4\. "Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)" -- C&amp;C Music Factory**

 

"Hello? Gay man here."

 

(Actually, Rodney doesn't like this song very much, but having it on his iPod feels like some kind of statement or something; he's not really sure, since he's never been much for the whole Gay Pride thing.

 

Also, it was that or "I Will Survive." )

 

**5\. "One Step Closer" -- U2**

 

One night, when they ended up in John's room because it was closer to the control room, Rodney snuck out of bed and opened up John's laptop while John snored behind him. Guessing John's password proved a little more difficult than he'd expected, but he managed. Copying the one track off _ How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb_ into his own directory on the physics' lab server, however, was simple. He was just closing the laptop when he realized that John wasn't snoring any more.

 

"What're you doing?" John's voice was husky with sleep and Rodney shivered.

 

"Um...just grabbing a song off your iTunes," Rodney said, wincing at the way fatigue and surprise kept him from dissembling.

 

"You don't have to steal music from me," John said.

 

"What are you, the RIAA?"

 

"I meant that I'd have given it to you if you'd asked instead of you having to hack in." Rodney could hear John sit up, and then the light near the bed came on, very low. John rubbed at his shoulder and looked at Rodney sleepily, and Rodney felt his breath catch as John's fingers moved over a bite mark from earlier. "Which song?"

 

"Well, yeah, I know that," Rodney said, still staring at John's shoulder. "I was awake and I just thought about it and I might have forgotten if I waited and, honestly, what made you spell your password in leet this week? And bad leet at that."

 

"Rodney," John said, "what song?"

 

Rodney just stood there silently, feeling his face go hot.

 

"Okay, whatever," John said. "Come back to bed; I'm cold."

 

"'One Step Closer to Knowing,'" Rodney muttered when he was in bed and the light was out.

 

"Well, I'll be damned," John drawled. He reached out and, after a little groping, put his hand over Rodney's heart. "Our song. Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay, I do believe that you're a romantic." He chuckled. "That, or, you know, a fifteen year old girl."

 

"You're such an asshole." Rodney said.

 

"I bet you say that to all the colonels."

 

"No, really, I hate you." Rodney was just getting started, but John moved in closer and kissed him hard and it was just as good as it had been that first time when he'd stopped by John's quarters and John's computer had gone from something twangy to U2 just as John had moved into Rodney's personal space and kissed him and Rodney had gotten so hard so fast he could almost feel all the blood in his body rushing to his dick and he had felt a strange kinship with John as he thought _didn't see that coming._

 

A half hour later, as John's breathing started to even out, Rodney said quietly, "You knew the significance without me saying anything."

 

"Course I did," John mumbled and then started snoring again.

 

_-end-_

**Author's Note:**

> Something about this fandom makes me want to write Five Things fic. Thank you to my wonderful beta [helens78](http://helens78.livejournal.com/) who is like the best comma abuse fixer-upper evah.
> 
> Read the [DVD Commentary](http://www.chezrozilla.net/rodneysipoddvd). There's also a companion piece, [ Five Tracks on John Sheppard's iPod (that he doesn't like to talk about)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/35917)
> 
> .


End file.
